Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1887-03-11

that I.ennOX Murdoch lay dying at Baran-
CARGO. | cannot try TO follow and analvze
the wild, formless thoughts that worked in
that dark brain of his A superstitious
sailor to begin with, brooding for weeks
together over his own thoughts in the bush
it is in truth scarcely to be wondered at if
his ideas of the Unseen were not much
higher than those of the bronze -colored
savages who would come and eat themselves
stupid on Murdoch's mutton and damper
round their camp fires near his hut. He be-
leved in the existence Of higher power
whose name he sometimes used in oaths, and
10 whom, when more reverently inclined, he
vaguely referred-but this rarely happened
us "Ihey - and, in sort of way, in the
efficacy Of prayer, though his views on the
subject were peculiar. Only ! know that
there came 10 him then, in some dim and in
articulate shape, the old, old, ever recur-
ring idea of "a life for life, and the de
mon god whose cruel will can only be salts
fled with blood
They came in as usual, aud settled down
to their supper and their customary mon
osyllabic talk. just at last, before they
turned in for the night, one of them hap
pened to ask him whether he had seen any
one that day. He answered in his slow
drawl, as he knocked the ashes out Of his
| pipe against his knee
Gibson from Murray's was here this af-
| ternoon. Came past Barangaroo. Says the
/ boss is real bad Got hurt with IA tree fall
| ing ON him.
/ There was dead silence Then the two
/ interchanged comments and questions in a
/ low voice, and finally, after having tried in
/ vain to get more lucid information from
/ him, they turned away and wrapped them
| selves in their blankets, leaving him still
smoking by the fire. Thereupon he looked
/ up and said One q you stay here to-inor
| row wanter to 90 down and see liuw he
/ is y to which they answered IAN right,
and were asleep in a few minutes
He sat still, watching the dying embers
/ for some time longer then he rose slowly,
put in his pocket the flint and -sleel and tim
der-box he always carried, stuck his knife
in his belt, felt for and found the tin panni
kin which served him for a drinking cup,
and opening the door softly went out.
There was no moon. hut it was bright star
light, and he had lived 50 many years in
the bush that he knew his way about it like
"A sleuth- hound. He struck right into the
scrub, pushing and twisting his way through
it like black fellow then he crossed an
open grassy tract dotted with gum tree,
here and there then after IA long climb NJ
"A steep quartz-strewn hillside, and an
abrubt descent into a gully beyond, h,
came to IA spot that perhaps no white man
foot had ever trodden before. 1t was "A leve
grassy space, with thckly wooded slope,
rising ON three sides of it like an amphi
theatre. Tall gum trees grew about it her,
and there, but not so closely a. to shut out
the starry sky. In the middle was a grass
grown mound, where tradition said that q
native chief was buried there was a cairl
of stones piled on the top. and here an,
there white objects that might have beef
bones. glnted in the faint light 1t was al
uncanny place, avoided by the blacks them
selves for the most part, though they cam,
there to hold nightly corroboree now an,
then. All was perfectly still, except fo
the rushing Of the creek down below, an,
the low, solemn stirring Of the wind in tn,
tree-tops He heaped a pile of dry stick
on the mound, going to work slowly, meth
odically, in his everyday fashion set fir
to it with his flint and steel, and stoo,
watching it patiently till it leaped into
blaze then he turned away and clearing
away the grass and leaves. drew with hi
knife a circle round the grave.
He stripped off his shirt, and laid it aside
then he knelt down in the circle before tn,
fire. with his knife and pannikin beside him
and claSped his hands before his face am
prayed
He had never done such thing in hi
life before-at any rate not since he was
child at his mothers knee Perhaps tn
words he said may shock you if write
down--so grotesquely blasphemous, so pa
thetically horrible were they. Yet mayb
there are people whose inarticulate creed
if put into plain English, would not amour
u much better.
Lord Almighty. he said Il don't kno,
much about this Yer busness-Im only
lag, an maybe faint the thing for me
speak. But if you want to kill any one, d
kill me. Maybe it's all the same to YOU
and, you see, nobody would miss me. = q
don't know how to say it all right, but
reckon youth know what ! mean. Strik
me dead now, or any time you please al
, let him get better. Amen.
! -Four corners to ms bid
-Four angels round my head,
Matthew, Marx. Lake and John,
, Bless the bed that lies on
1t was the only thing Of the sort he +,
4. membered cut of his far-oH childhood
perhaps the only prayer he had ever learne,
1t may be that he thought it of service as
1 kind of devotional incantation.
I He took his hands from his face and hel
them clAsped straight before linn, lookin
with vague, eNpectant eyes up to the star
and waiting for the stroke to fall. He +,
r. ally had some expectation that it would.
I There was IA sudden hoarse scream and
f far-oh Tapping of wings in the stillne
above his head 1t was am eagle hawk, lii
turbed from his nest in the highest OF I'll
q stringy banks
Maybe he's gone to fetch the thu
dcr-bolt,' he thought, as fragment
N.-ill Il
4 mind. "U'ottija, ,coi,lja" And he mu
. INJURED some words in the native langual
a most likely II charm.
g But all was still--the fire leaped and fiicl
p cred, and the eagle-hawk did not con
back
t He took up his knife from the ground al
Il drew the sharp point quickly down h
+ breast then made another cut across
e and held up the cup to catch the startiI
e drops.
/ You thought didn't mean it, but d,
q See, this is the first and the rests to con
/, after -
n He slowly lifted the pannikin and pour,
a its contents into the fire. As it Missed al
, cracked in the fame he went on speaking
I'm goin' down in the morning to $
T., him once more. If you do your part al
II let him get better I'll come here to-morro
Il. night and end it. / swear solemnly | wi
You hear me VIII that do =
. He knelt with uplifted, bloodstain,
hands, looking up to the peaceful sky
(, he looked, falling star drew IA line of lig
d across the space of sky between the tops
the stringy-barks and vanished
Its done it's done ~ he cried, Al
,e flung himself forward ON his face, He L
a there for some time without moving VIII
Is the fire fiickered down and died-leapil
n up now and then, and casting weird, yag
h lights and shadows over the grave moul
and the PROSTATE figure.
70 The slow hours of the afternoon bragg
out their cruel length Macdonald, L
d overseer, sat by Murdoch's side. Murdo
m sat still, with closed eyes-not asleep-Ma
donald knew that by the occasional twitc
he ing of the white lips in spasm of pal
and the tightening grasp of the hand
a held in his. He had done all he could
- relieve the long last agony it was Il
al much-there was no surgical aid with
In reach, and he knew enough to feel su
a that even had there been, no skill or ga
NJ could save him They would never qua
l. rel again, these two they had done so It
~ ularly about once a week, and no one won
y. have suspected from Macdonalds dry
IS served ways and caustic severity of spec
j. that he loved this "feckless, reckless Nh
ia doch like his own brother.
Of He was beginning to hope that Sleep
MED all night long-might come at la
&c when Murdoch turned his head YEARLY "a
opened his eyes.
IN I'm that tired, Mac | shall be 81
r. when it's over"
ed 1t was the first word of complaint he i
e uttered Macdonald had not broken do'
D. before, but he felt near it now. He I
io the sob rising in his throat us he murmuI
er something incoherent about the impossil
n. ity of getting doctor.
~ Don't worry about that Mac. WI
to bless you, he'd only bother me and not